Family, Advocacy, and Leadership in Rent to Own with John Cleek Jr.

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Pete Cow.
You may know me from the Archgopodcast, but today, I'm doing
something a little bitdifferent.
April and Wild Brands havelaunched a special project to
bring the story of our industryto life like never before.
Today that's going to sit downwith some of the true legends of
our stuff.
After their stories, theirimpact, and their vision for the
future.
And now, I get to share thoseconversations with you.

(00:25):
A new book.
The Rental Revolution is thefitness history of advocacy of
the story.
Written by April Studios calledFriday.
The wildware studio calledFirecraft.
The book is for the grassrootsof RTO, the advocacy that is
defined, and the future thatwe're building together.
Here's where you covered.
We're giving away free copiesonce the book is built together.

(00:46):
Just head over toRTORevolution.com and sign up
for a chance to receive a copyof early 2026.
Don't miss the chance to beamong the first to hold this
piece of RTO history.
That's rtorevolution.com.
Check it out and become a partof RTO History.

(01:10):
Hello and welcome to the RTOShow podcast.
I'm your host, Pete Chow.
Today we have another LegendSeries interview.
And listen, this one is a littlebit different because I have to
meet what I would consider is alegend of my current day,
talking about a legend of thatthat's already come through and
John Cleek and John Cleek Jr.

(01:32):
The Tiger Moniker, I think, justfollows you guys everywhere.
And it's a it's it's amazing.
But you know, I'm talking toJohn Cleek Jr.
right now about Senior and someof the amazing things that he's
done.
Uh you guys have both have alegendary career, but today
we're gonna we're gonna do thelegend series some justice.
We're gonna talk about dad alittle bit and some of the
things that he's been able to doin his long esteemed career

(01:54):
through the mind and eyeset ofhis son who does an amazing job.
We were just talking about thisearlier, who can also dance
Michael Jackson very, very well.
I'll give you that.
So how you doing, John?
How's everything going today?

SPEAKER_01 (02:06):
I'm doing great, Pete.
Just getting ready for uhChristmas and spending some
awesome time with our family.

SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Uh you know, we were talking about that earlier, and
I'll say you were very blessed.
I've seen your family on thecommercials that you did.
Amazing.
It was beautiful to see.
And it's kind of like why we'rehere today, right?
We're talking about family.
We're talking about, you know,where where you came from and
some of the direction thatyou've taken from your father,
who did an amazing job in thisindustry, and then kind of set
you on your way.

(02:32):
Talk to me a little bit.
How did Cleeks RTO get started?
Because I know that Elmo was apart of that as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
Yeah, I mean, Cleek's was uh founded back in
1956.
My late grandparents, CliftonElmo Cleek and my grandmother
Wilma Cleek, uh started thebusiness.
It's actually known as Cleek'sAppliance and Food Service.
My grandfather, there was abusiness down the road called
Wilson's Meat Market, and mygrandfather rented the back wall

(02:59):
from Mr.
Wilson.
Mr.
Wilson would basically sellthem, you know, the meat, and
then my grandfather would sellthem in a mana freezer, and then
they had a local community bankthat uh financed the whole deal
over like two years.
So that's kind of how it gotstarted.
And uh so it's Cleeks Applianceand Food Service, and then about

(03:20):
three years later, there was abuilding um 1000 West Broadway.
Uh it's still there today, thethe building, and my grandfather
purchased that uh building andit was a couple thousand square
feet, but certainly much biggerthan what they had before, and
then uh they started uhexpanding the line, more

(03:41):
appliances, more electronics,and so forth.
Um so and of course everythingwas, you know, retail back then,
obviously.
And then uh back in nineteenseventy-three there was another
location a couple blocks away at1000 West Whirley, uh here in
Columbia.
And uh it was an old grocerystore.
It was like six or seventhousand square feet, and over

(04:03):
the summer, like in August,basically they moved the whole
store and set up the whole newstore over the course of a
weekend, and then you know, nineo'clock Monday morning, they're
open for business, you know, andthen Wow.
My grandfather, of course, youknow, I I'll get to this here in
a second.
I didn't get to know him verywell, but you know, he was an
ultimate promoter, you know,much like my dad, and I try to

(04:26):
be today as well, too.
But uh you know, he uh they hada a huge grand opening event.
You mean they had the mayor,they had the head football coach
back then was Al Anafrio.
They had a a little band, theGolden Girls.
I mean, it was a it was a bigtime event.
The community came out,supported it.
Um that was in August of 73.
I was two years old, so I wasthere.

(04:48):
I think I was doing a couple ofdrawings or something, but uh
and then unfortunately, and uhmy you know, well, my
grandfather and of course my dadand you know, big uh big
Missouri Tiger fans and love touh quail hunt and all kinds of
other stuff too.
So my grandfather was up with afriend of his.
They'd took taken a small planeup to Ames, Iowa, and uh for a

(05:13):
quail hunting trip and then theMissouri Tiger game.
And then unfortunately on theway back on November the 19th of
73, got into bad weather and theother pilot wasn't instrument
rated and they ended up flyingthe plane in the ground and
killed both of them.
And uh, you know, my dad wastwenty three years old.
I was only two years old, and uhthere wasn't any, you know, it

(05:37):
wasn't any money or anythinglike that.
It was just, you know, obviouslyit was total devastation from my
father.
He lost his uh lost his bestfriend, lost his dad, lost his
business partner and his heroand everything.
But uh, you know, there wasn'tany quitting my father, there
wasn't any other options either.
I mean, he just had to figureout a way to make it work.

(05:59):
Right.
So he kept it going.
You know, he uh you know, hiscliques cliques appliances and
uh, you know, kept the businessrunning for long, well,
obviously a long time, but backthen, you know, it's just it was
devastating.
You know, his mother's stillalive and then he had an older
sister and a younger sister too,but uh that's kind of how

(06:20):
everything got started and soforth with the business.

SPEAKER_00 (06:23):
So dad was kind of thrust into it and he did
everything that he had to do tokind of make amends for his
family and make sure everythingwas going, and then turned it
into what it is today.
Because I mean, you guys have afollowing in Missouri that is
second to none.
I don't I can't think of aperson in Missouri or the
Missouri area or around yourstories that don't know the
clique name, especially yourface with the clique name.

(06:45):
And so, you know, it's it's uhit's uh important to see that,
you know, uh family is always adriver, right?
Whether you want to take care ofthem, whether you want to make
sure that they have, or you wantto make sure they take care of
their future, you know, thatdrives.
And it says a lot that yourfather was able to come out of
that and be able to create morefrom what that was.
Because at that point you'resaying it was and I gotta say, a

(07:07):
little off-camera here, but youhave uh the memory of uh like
you have the ability to sayaddresses and dates and times.
Listen, at two years old, Icouldn't remember anything.
But you know, as you comethrough, and and and I obviously
I know the the uh uh informationcomes later, but you have the
ability to just quote names andtimes and dates, and I mean like
nobody's business.
And I I love when I talk to youbecause you're so detailed about

(07:30):
that.
But uh so out of this tragedy,uh cliques goes to dad, and
together at some point in time,because I know that there's a
time frame where you're stillkind of going growing up and
getting through this, youdevelop and and grow out to
more.
So, how was it, you know, howdid it go from dad's one store
location where you you know youguys are just going through this
and kind of making it happen,getting through the transition

(07:52):
and the pain of what happened,and then grow it more and become
more a part of the community?

SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
Sure.
So, well, as far as rememberingthe dates and some of that other
stuff, I mean, I wish I couldhave remembered stuff back in
school, that would have done mea lot better.
But uh I'm I'm full of all kindsof information that doesn't
matter a whole lot in some ways.
But uh anyhow, no, you know, mygrandfather had two rules to the
company we still use today, andthen we added a third rule.

(08:20):
You know, my grandfather'snumber one rule of our company
is never say anything you haveto remember.
So basically, if you always tellthe truth, it always comes back
to you.
And then a second rule is getbigger, get better, or get out.
And then uh the other rule thatwe adopted was you know the
golden rule of uh treat everyonethe way you want to be treated.

(08:41):
Okay, so those are our threerules that we run our company
by.
We try to live our life by, andyou know, are we perfect?
No, but we try to adhere tothose the best that we can.
So, you know, again, it was allretail.
My dad also got into the carpetbusiness a little bit as well.
He pretty much hated thatbusiness though, because he
couldn't stand dealing with thecarpet installers and everything

(09:04):
else, and it just wasn't histhing.
When I was a kid, you know, I'dkind of got started in this
thing.
I went to school down the roadand I'd walk down from school
and we had all these rolls ofcarpet all over the floor.
And I mean, I'm a little kidcrawling all over the carpet and
just not doing anything superproductive other than just being
a kid.
But then once I got a little bitolder, I started coming down,

(09:26):
vacuuming the floor, clean somestuff, you know, put TV stands
together and stuff like that.
Stuff you can do when you're 14,15 years old, whatever.
My father always worked with hisdad.
He just knew that's what hewanted to do, and his dad always
worked, and if he wanted to seehis father, they probably need
to work together.
My dad was the best salesmanthat I ever saw in my life, and

(09:47):
you know, according to all theconversations that I've had with
my dad in the past, you know,his his dad, you know, Elmo, you
know, he was the best that he'dever seen.
You know, there's a lot of goodstories.
You know, my dad, you know, backin the day, you know, he knew
all the product knowledge, heknew, you know, what the
competitors had, what theirpricing was.
I mean, he he pretty well kneweverything, and they they

(10:09):
couldn't afford to miss a saleback then either, because it was
all about survival.
And you know, I'd like to thinkwe could have that same
mentality today, but that'sprobably not necessarily
reality.
But nonetheless, I know there'sone time, you know, my dad's
sitting there telling this onecustomer uh everything about
this, I don't know, washer ordryer or whatever it was, and

(10:30):
just kept going on and going onand going on.
And he'd probably already closedhis sale about five times, and
then his uh his dad comes overto him and uh slips him a little
note, and uh, you know, I can'treally say what was on the note,
but you can probably take aguess, and about you know two

(10:50):
seconds later he's like, Yes,sir, and you know, hey Mr.
Smith, let's go get him writtenup on this washer dryer, you
know.
So um, but you know, my dad, youknow, he would he could do
everything in the store when hewas, you know, 14, 15 years old
except drive the truck.
So there was a lot of times, youknow, he'd customers would be
like, you know, hey, can we getthis TV delivered tonight?

(11:11):
And he's like, Well, yes, sir,I'll get it to you, but you
know, do you mind driving the dthe truck?
Because I can't drive.

SPEAKER_00 (11:17):
Oh my wow.
That's dedication.
That's dedication.
Listen, I'll get it to you.
Just help me out.

SPEAKER_01 (11:22):
You know, and my family was everything, you know.
My grandfather coached uh my dadand Little League Baseball, and
my grandfather was one of theco-founders of Daniel Boone
Little League here in Columbia,Missouri.
And so, you know, if he didn'thave anybody to run the store
while my dad would had a game, Imean he'd literally just put a
sign on the uh door saying, youknow, go on to the ballpark for

(11:45):
two hours and be back later.
So, you know, they didn't missbaseball, didn't miss Missouri
Tiger football.
Um, but it was all about familyand all about work, taking care
of customers.

SPEAKER_00 (11:56):
You know, I that's something that I've always
admired, and and I know that youand and Heather always have kind
of brought that tradition up totoday, you know, always being
the fans and uh making sure thatyou guys represent your teams
out there, and I love that.
So talking about the expansion,there was a little bit of
expansion.
I know that at some point intime there was an expansion into

(12:16):
uh you know a differentfranchise.
I mean, we did errands,apparently it didn't work out
because you guys are back toclique, still kind of
representing the home team.
Um what was the what was the thedifference in that that you
decided, you know what, we'regonna go back to doing what we
did because you guys have areally strong bond with your
community.
You probably do more communityevents in a year than people
that I know who probably do itin 10 years.

(12:37):
I mean, you're just alwaysraising money, you guys are
always out there doing what youneed to do, whether it be ALS,
whether anything.
And you guys represent yourcompany and your community very,
very well.
Um, but you know, as afranchise, it's a little bit
different.
You mean they have like thesecooker cookie cutter kind of
things, you gotta follow theserules and stuff like that.
Was that some of the reason whyyou decided to go back to
cliques and and why didn't itstay that way?

SPEAKER_01 (12:58):
Yeah, I kind of take you full circle on the uh
expansion, backing up a littlebit.
So again, following, you know,the get bigger, get better, get
out, you know, my dad made thedecision, you know, retail
business had kind of gone flatin the late mid mid-80s, and
then the Columbia Mall here hadopened up and there was a Sears

(13:18):
retail store and so forth.
So retail had kind of gone flat.
My dad was kind of dabbled inthe rent owned business in the
mid to late 70s, but then madethe decision to uh get into rent
owned full-fledged back in 1987.
The only way he figured this wasgonna work is that we had to
expand.
So we opened up our second storeand and we were back as we were

(13:41):
still cliques, of course, backin.
It opened up in 1988 in Fulton,Missouri, and then in 1989 we
opened up in Mexico, and thenlet's see, in 95 we opened up uh
another store here in Columbia,Missouri, and then we opened up
in Boonville, so that gave usfive.
Uh in 1998, we opened up in JeffCity, Missouri, and then in 2000

(14:04):
we opened up in Moberly, so thatgave us seven, and then uh back
in 2006, we opened up inMarshall and Sedalia, which is
about an hour or so west ofColumbia.
But my dad, you know, big TVmarketer and uh looked at ADA,
area dominant influence, or anduh you know, TV and where you

(14:27):
know our local stations wouldhit and so forth, and he kind of
drew these rings around a map,and these nine locations
basically you know checked thebox for him, kind of where we
wanted to be.
So it's 2006, things are rollingalong pretty well.
Um we had we owned a 14,000square foot warehouse.

(14:49):
My dad and I owned 5050, we'down another strip center in uh
in Sedalia, and uh but then youknow this other competitor
called you know Aaron's wascoming along, and uh well they'd
already been around for a longtime.
They had you know much similarkind of starting out, honestly,
as kind of our company.
Um, of course, the late great uhCharlie Louder Milk.

(15:12):
Um, you know, start they startedin 1955, you know, renting
folding chairs, and then ofcourse just built it into a
little you know multi-billiondollar business.
But uh just a little one, just alittle just a little one.
Um but anyhow I can't really saythat about cliques.
We're working on stuff.
But anyway, um, you guys aredoing great.
You guys are doing great.

(15:32):
Aaron's was in a couple of ourmarkets.
You know, obviously not likewe're you know afraid of
competition or you know, it'snatural everybody's gotta
compete against each other, butyou know, they were starting to
come into one of our othermarkets.
We were already competingagainst them in two or three
markets.
Um we could kind of tell thatuh, you know, the writing was on
the wall that eventually they'reprobably gonna be in all of our

(15:54):
markets.
And, you know, they had kind ofapproached us, you know, Robert
Briley and Abilene, Texas had uhcontacted my father.
Well, I think he called abouteverybody in the country at one
point, but anyway, you know, andhe came down here, and you know,
my little Robert Briley Tiger,just you know, come on down to
Texas and I'll show you how itworks.
And you just gotta see thesystem, Tiger.

(16:16):
It's something else.
And then so we came down thereto Texas, and I gotta admit, you
know, I mean, it was a hell of asystem.
It probably still is today.
I'm glad I'm not in it, but Imean, nonetheless, it it, you
know, it was a great system.
It was better than what we hadat the time.
You know, we were a 53-yearcompany.

(16:36):
It was not an easy decision tomake.
We definitely didn't take itlightly, but you know, there was
seemed like a family thing to usat the time.
They had some buybackguarantees.
We, you know, thought we weregetting into this national
buying power and all this otherstuff.
And and then plus on top ofthat, you know, we'd take out
our biggest competitor at thetime.

(16:56):
And it's kind of like the old,you know, if you can't beat
them, join them mentality, Iguess.
So that's pretty much what thedecision was to go to Aaron's.
And in December 1 of 2008, weconverted our company to
Aaron's.
So, you know, we still alwaysmaintain though the cliques is
now Aaron's.

(17:17):
We always kept cliques as partof it.
Right.
And you know, arguably, I'lljust say it like it is.
I mean, m my dad is, you know,he was very hard-headed.
Hell, I'm hard-headed.
We probably really weren't thegreatest franchisees to some
degree, because I mean, we'vebeen doing this forever
ourselves.
Right.
All these other people coming into, you know, telling you to do

(17:40):
this, telling you to do that.
And I mean, again, we still usea lot of the same things that we
did back as Aaron's today.
There's some of the samepolicies that we use today that
we think were very good, butthen you know, and we we grew
like crazy.
I mean, you know, but you know,when you uh you give up that six
percent, that's a that's apretty big number.

(18:02):
And then uh we just never reallycould overcome that.
And uh we had several storesthat did well, we had a couple
that didn't.
Uh but uh at the end of the end,we ended up selling one of our
stores to a friend of ours, youknow, Larry Carico.
We sold the Mobily store to rentone.
In Columbia, we had two stores,and uh, you know, we we owned

(18:24):
the real estate here in one ofthem, the other one we leased,
and we just decided, you know,you had to do all these big
major upgrades and all this kindof stuff, and they're really
pretty expensive.
We just decided to kind ofimprove efficiencies or whatever
and combine everything into onestore.
Also, when we did the deal,there was another franchisee in
the area, and we we tried to buyhim out, but he he didn't want

(18:47):
to sell out at the time, so itinvolved us having to sell a
store or two, merge a store, buya store.
It was a little bit messy andcomplicated, but we made it all
work for a while and so forth.
But then you know, there's somethings that you know obviously
transpired with uh you know Mr.

(19:08):
Loudermilk kind of retired, andthen Ken Butler, uh, you know,
of course, was the COO ofAaron's, and you know, when he
was there, uh, you know, thething was growing and going, and
I mean he obviously is a legendin this business, and uh you
know, we have a lot of respectfor him.
He definitely was never lackinga lot of confidence.
I love Ken Butler.

(19:28):
KB is like one of my favoritepeople.

SPEAKER_00 (19:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (19:31):
But then he kind of left, and they had a couple of
other CEOs come through.
Uh, you know, there's one ofthem that couldn't even explain
uh who our customer was.
You know, I mean I we felt thatwas kind of surprising, and then
uh another CEO came in and youknow, Aaron's had made the
decision to buy out progressiveleasing.

(19:54):
And uh so then we kind of youknow, there's a lot of the
franchisees that weren't reallyhappy about the So you know, at
the end of the day, you know,it's about 2017 or so now, and
my dad and I were at an Aaron'sfranchise meeting, there was
some things that were said, andwe just kind of looked at each

(20:15):
other and decided that you knowthis this just really isn't for
us.
This was a 10-year agreement.
And, you know, I probably a lotof things I could say but
probably shouldn't say.
So um, but they uh I'll saythis.
Aaron's was very cordial withus.
Um a guy named Scott Harvey, whowas the VP of franchise at the

(20:37):
time, and Julie Scott, they werevery great to work with.
They made it very easy for us,and uh, we were able to exit,
and then on as you'll know on mydates, on September the 10th of
2018, we converted back tocliques, and it's been cliques
ever since.
So, and it'll be cliques untilit's not cliques anymore.

(20:59):
Until it's not cliques, right?
So, you know, and then you know,there's been uh, you know, some
other franchisees that have uhdecided to exit the Aaron's plan
as well since that time, and I'mnot gonna speak for them, but
you know, and then uh you know,and I but again I'll say this I

(21:20):
don't have anything bad to sayabout it.
It was a learning experience.
It you know, ultimately we wedidn't get into it to get out of
it, but ultimately we decidedthat it wasn't the best fit for
us, and again, they were cordialand letting us get out, and so
be it, that's where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 (21:40):
Hey everyone, it's Pete Chow here from the R2O Show
podcast, and I want to tell youabout a company that's making a
real difference in the rentowner space, WoWrand.
I've seen firsthand how theyapproach marketing.
Let me tell you, it's not justabout ads.
Wow brands have complete digitalecosystems designed specifically
for the rental.
They're coming to qualify,they're actively working for

(22:06):
rental.
They designed still kind ofretail.
So if you're serious aboutgrowing, reach out to Wild
Brands at WildBrands.com.

(22:26):
I trust it, and I think you willtoo.
Well, so during this time, asyou're going through this,
right?
So we're trying to expand, we'vegot a bunch of stores, you've
you're going either into or outof the errands franchise.
There's a lot going on betweenyou and dad.
You guys are sharing the the uhthe reins, so to speak, I would
imagine.
Where do you find time to be onthe April board as the

(22:48):
president?
How did how did he find time todo that with everything that was
going on?
I mean, he you know, not onlydid he do that, but you guys
also are very, very into uh theMissouri Rental Dealers
Association as well.
So you're not only you know inApril on a on a on a whole
level, uh, you know, you youguys are an MRDA, which is huge.

SPEAKER_01 (23:07):
So my dad joined the well, first of all, I back up.
He started the Missouri RentalDealers Association, him and
another gentleman named JohnThompson.
They started it back in 1987,November, and a group of uh
rental dealers all got together.
There's a gentleman named DaveEgan, who was an attorney for
Rent Center, had called myfather and said, you know, hey,

(23:28):
I need you to get you know therental dealers together.
We gotta get a state associationformed there in Missouri.
So they all got together, andthen they had hired a lobbyist,
um, a guy named John Britton.
And uh, you know, Mr.
Britton was a legend in theCapitol in Jefferson City,
Missouri.
Um he's kind of like the onlyguy I think that's ever been
allowed to smoke inside theCapitol and everything.

(23:50):
Anyway, he gets together withthis the group of rental
dealers, and then like in Juneof 88, um, they're having a
subcommittee hearing down in theCapitol, and my dad's down there
with a bunch of other dealers,and uh John Britton's going on
about our rent-to-owned statute,and my dad's looking at this
other guy, and he's like, Isanything this guy's talking

(24:13):
about sound like anything thatwe really do in this business?
And he's like, No, not really,but just let him go.
He's got these guys spinning incircles, they don't know what to
think, so he'll get it done,don't worry about it.
And in June of 1988, we had astate law passed in Missouri.
It's a very favorable law.
Missouri's a very favorablebusiness um climate.

(24:35):
So, you know, and then MRDA wasformed.
Uh, you know, my dad was uh, youknow, an AMRDA president, he was
on the board, you know, thewhole time until his passing.
He's always been a member ofApril.
You know, we're a 40-year Aprilmember now.
Oh, yeah.
And back in 1998, uh my dad ranfor the April board and got

(24:58):
elected.
And then uh, you know, back in2008, uh he he got elected as
president.
And uh so yeah, just in themidst of, you know, we're
changing over our entirebusiness uh to this new thing
and errands, and then my dad'sthe president of APRO.
And then on top of that, they'reuh you know, they're right in

(25:21):
the middle of trying to getfederal legislation passed.
I mean, they were, I mean, asclose as they had ever been.
We had a a representative in theHouse out of St.
Louis, Missouri, named LaceyClay.
He's a great guy, and uh herepresented our industry very
well.
He, you know, he was a liberalDemocrat, but he he loved uh he

(25:42):
loved our business because hereally saw the value that we
provide, you know, to hisconstituents, and he got fully
behind it.
He came to our, you know, uhLedgeCon, I believe.
He was probably at the Aprilsession at one point or another,
too.
But I mean, when my dad was thepresident and you know, there's
a lot of lobbyists involved, andof course, Ed Wynne, Bill Keese,

(26:05):
all this, and um, a lot ofpeople working on this.
But my dad, literally from sunupto sundown, was working on
April, working on trying to getthis federal legislation passed,
and they ended up getting moreco-sponsors in the House than
they'd ever had before.
And then it uh actually passedthrough the House, and then uh

(26:25):
they got to the Senate and itdied and didn't go anywhere.
But uh I mean it wasn't from ahell of a lot of effort, you
know, especially on my dad'spart.
And but literally him and EdWynne were talking all the time,
different lobbyists and soforth, John Raffielli, I
believe, and so forth.
So that was a lot of a lot ofeffort put on federal

(26:47):
legislation by my dad.
Unfortunately it didn't didn'tever happen.
But uh, you know, it's kind ofamazing how at the state level,
you know, we can get a billpassed in six or seven months,
and then at the federal level,you know, all we really need is
some type of a definition billthat'll say, you know, rent own
is a lease, not a credit sale,and you know, millions and

(27:10):
millions of dollars and tons oftrips to DC and bunch of people
working on it, and twenty-five,thirty something years later
still nothing.
But uh, you know, that was a bigthing.
Uh of course, also the otherthing that was a big legacy for
my dad, and really I'd say washis legacy, was the state
associations.
My dad, he uh saw the need, youknow, he you know, he felt that

(27:34):
this is a grassroots thing.
You know, it's uh we got allthese dealers all over the
country, everybody's trying tostart this, start that, and do
their own thing.
And you know, we kind of hadthis already developed in
Missouri.
Um, you know, we had a greatexecutive director from
Missouri, a guy named KenSteiner.
My dad hired him and he ran ourtrade show for years.

(27:57):
We had a lot of great boardmembers.
Um, you know, we had the lateMark Windsor with Dan Cole, Gary
Romine, Chuck Kaluva, um youknow, and then I I think I
joined the board in about 2001or so, kind of started getting
involved at the state level onthe board, and then you know

(28:17):
went through the ranks, youknow, vice president, and then
became president and did thatfor a while and so forth.
But now my dad, you know, he hewould travel at his own expense
from coast to coast,reorganizing these state
associations, and a lot oftimes, you know, Ed Wynne would
go with him.
And you know, my one thing mydad's very proud of, you know,

(28:37):
is that you know, back in 1998there was like 10 state
associations, I believe.
And then in there was a reallynice article written in the
April magazine back in 2010, andby that point in time there was
like 37 state associations.
Okay, and my dad had a had areally big part in helping get

(28:57):
those off the ground or youknow, revamped or what have you.
And I know there was a time, Ithink, in Georgia, my dad had to
go there a couple differenttimes, but it you know, he he
didn't really sugarcoat things awhole lot.
Um, but he he basically said,Listen, I don't know what the
hell we need to do if we needto, you know, put a chain on the

(29:17):
door or put armed guards at thedoor or whatever, but we're not
leaving here until we've got apresident, a vice president, and
a board of directors.
So I've been here twice, and youguys are gonna get this fixed
today.
And that's pretty much where youknow the tiger comes out too at
times.
But, you know, like I've I wastalking to my good friend, you

(29:40):
know, David David, who ofcourse, you know, has served
this industry forever in allkinds of different capacities.
And you know, the one thing thathe said about my dad was that,
you know, Tiger was the perfectpresident for the time of what
and what we needed.
And uh I really appreciate that.
And you know, he always promotedthe state associations.

(30:01):
Um, you know, and I talked toBill Keys too, and uh, you know,
he just you know basically saidthe Tiger is always true to
himself, always, you know,honest with everybody.
And uh, you know, my dad gavehis heart and soul to this
industry.
I mean, you know, obviouslyfirst and foremost, he loves
God, he loves his family, butyou know, April's our second

(30:24):
family.
And uh we have some of our bestfriends in this industry,
vendors, other dealers, um, eventhough maybe the Aaron's thing
didn't work out for usultimately, but some of my best
friends in this industry areAaron's franchisees, you know.
So so no, it's been a great ridefor us.
Uh it was a great ride for mydad.
He's proud of a lot of differentthings, but uh, you know, again,

(30:46):
the state associations werecertainly first and foremost to
his heart.
And then my dad was uh receivedseveral awards uh that are
really important in the you knowthe industry.
Um, you know, his first awardthat he got was back in 1996.
He was recognized as the rentaldealer of the year, and then in
2016, uh he received the ErnieTalley Lifetime Achievement

(31:10):
Award, which is the highesthonor you can receive at April.

SPEAKER_00 (31:14):
That's it.
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (31:15):
And then uh, you know, as you know, my father was
uh diagnosed with ALS in Junefourth of 2020, and uh you know,
we kind of kept it under wrapsfor a while, um for whatever
reasons, but uh then you know,as it kinda got to the point,

(31:35):
you know, with ALS, which is ayou know, crappy disease, I
definitely don't recommend it.
But you know, he started losinghis functions, you know, you
know, couldn't speak as clearly,you know, so forth, and so he
decided to go ahead and use hiscelebrity status here in town to
kind of be the spokesperson forALS, and uh, we got involved

(31:57):
with the ALS Association andeverything.
Back in 2021, April decided tohonor my father with coming up
with the RTO Tiger Award.
So that was my dad was the firstrecipient of that.
And uh so and then I've you knowI've uh presented the award ever
since.
And then uh so one of thecoolest moments though, back and

(32:19):
I'll say this, you know, like Isay, the very first year we did
the ALS walk, we formed TeamTiger, and that was back when my
father was, you know, stillalive.
So there was a lot of uh a lotof emotion, a lot of support
throughout the industry, allover the country.
And you know, we we raised like,I don't know, 85,000, 90,000
bucks or something that firstyear, you know, for the walk

(32:41):
here in Columbia, which washuge.
But uh, I know I was standing onthe stage at an April event, and
uh we kind of did a video and uhgot even though it's probably a
little bit reluctant for some ofmy friends in Kansas to say
this, but they still did it onbehalf of my father.
But I got everybody to uh youknow give a big M-I-Z-Z-O-U, you

(33:04):
know, we love you, Tiger, showedthat to my dad, and obviously
that was pretty special.

SPEAKER_00 (33:09):
Oh, absolutely.
You know, you mentioned so manytimes a lot of leadership, a lot
of times that he has dealt anddone different things, whether
it's the accolades that he'sgotten from APRO, whether it's
being a part of an MRDA, whetherit's being on the board of
April.
You know, that's a lot ofleadership.
Did he have people that hecollaborated with, people that,
you know, mentored him on theway up, or was was he just one

(33:30):
of those guys that was like hejust led his own way?

SPEAKER_01 (33:33):
Well, of course, first and foremost, his number
one mentor was his father, butyou know, he lost him at an
early age at twenty-three.
Now there was another gentleman,you know, of course, he's passed
away quite a ways back, but uhgentleman named Hartley Banks,
who uh was a banker.
He owned a he owned a local bankhere in town, and he was one of
my grandfather's best friends,and he kind of took my dad under

(33:57):
his wings.
And uh Hartley was uh he was acharacter, there's no doubt
about it.
He kind of liked to have a fewcocktails maybe, and he was a
little a little gruff, but uh Iknow there was some I don't know
what this guy was.
He was a business analyst orsomething, but you know, my dad
was talking to him about thisrent-to-one thing back in the

(34:19):
day.
This guy kept going on and onand on about you know the event
of this and the event of thatand blah blah blah.
And Hartley finally just toldthis guy to shut the hell up.
And listen, Alex no tiger.
If you know if he can't figureit out, then he'll be smart
enough to get the hell out ofit.
But you just shut your butt upand he'll figure it out, and
that's kind of how that went.

(34:41):
And um, but yeah, Hartley,again, a little bit rough, but
he was uh another very honestperson to the day was long, and
uh you know he'd do anything foryou, but he was definitely one
of my dad's best friends.
You know, there's anothergentleman that is still alive
that's a mentor to me.

(35:01):
I have lunch with him everyweek.
We had lunch today, actually,and he was a good friend to my
father, but guy named BillSchultz, he owned a local uh
Culligan water distributorshiphere in town and a very
successful businessman and greatguy, and so he was a good mentor
to my father as well, too, soand to me as well.

SPEAKER_00 (35:20):
So, you know, talking about Hartley, it'd be
kind of funny that it comes upthis way.
How how involved were you anddad when it came down to the
Heartland Expo with with the wayyou guys did, you know, what
what you do, the the fact thatyou guys have this every year
and it's this big gathering ofeverybody that just it has just
gotten bigger and bigger andbigger every year.

(35:40):
How involved was dad in that,and then where did it transition
off to you?

SPEAKER_01 (35:45):
Yeah, I mean, my dad was really involved in it,
starting out, and again, youknow, we had I mentioned a lot
of the names in the past, butyou know, we had a really good
board of directors.
Ken Steiner's the one thatpretty well organized the show
as far as dealing with thevendors and making sure they got
registered and everything.
So Ken did a lot of the work anddeserves, you know, a lot of the

(36:05):
credit.
But I mean, you've got alsoyou've got to have a leader, you
know, in any state associationor any business.
You gotta have somebody that'sgot that passion to make it one
work.
And uh, you know, these youknow, people just show up to
these trade shows or whateverand just think this, you know,
just happens, you know, and it'slike, no, you could kind of work
on this stuff for you know, sixmonths or something or whatever

(36:26):
to make it happen.
But uh, my dad was veryinvolved, and you know, at the
originally it was the MRDA show,okay, and then we did that for,
I don't know, probably 10 years.
So we'd have, you know, 25, 30vendors show up, you know, a
little bit smaller venue at ahotel, and then uh we've kind
of, you know, you were therelast year, but we've always kind

(36:48):
of now been at the lodge of thefour seasons, and you uh you see
the big exhibit hall that wehave and everything.
We're able to get about 70booths in there or so, and the
vendors do come with product,and uh, you know, that's kind of
the o the opportunity for ourmanagers to that's kind of their
you know, trib show or theirApril show or whatever, because
most of us can't afford to sendour people to those national

(37:11):
events.
So um and then, you know, I wantto say 15 or probably 20 years
ago we started the the Heartlandconcept.
I don't remember if that waskind of something at my
direction or my father or theboard in general, but um we just
kind of think, you know, again,get bigger, get better, get out,
you know, we gotta get thisthing.

(37:32):
We gotta get the we got otherstates involved that are right
around us, you know, and Kansas,uh Arkansas, you know, so forth,
Illinois.
You know, let's put on a biggershow, and they're more than
welcome to attend.
And, you know, that that did payoff for quite a few years.
And um, you know, we last yearwas probably our best show that

(37:54):
we've ever, one of the bestshows we ever had.
A couple years ago, well ofcourse, you know, with COVID,
that kind of screwed everythingup.
We had to cancel the show.
And we tried to come back thefollowing year, and well, I
think we did come back with ashow.
It wasn't we had to delay it ata different time of year.
Wasn't quite as great.
But then each and every yearsince then, we've we've gotten
back to where we were.

(38:15):
Ken Steiner did retire uh aboutthree years ago.
We he tried to retire quite afew times, but we'd never let
him.
But uh he did finally retire,and him and his wife Laura, uh,
they actually live in Mexico.
Um, I don't remember the name ofthe town exactly, but they're in
Mexico and they're having fundown there.
But uh thankfully, and then wewere at a little bit of a

(38:37):
crossroads.
I mean, you know, my father hadpassed away, Mark Windsor had
passed away, uh, you know, Kenretires, Dan Cole sells out,
Gary Romine sells out, ChuckKaluva sells out.
Uh, we lost uh some pretty heavyhitters on our board.
Fortunately, Macy Mitchell andhis mom, Liz Mitchell, you know,

(39:00):
and Scott, but they own allAmerican rental in the
Springfield area, and uh theydecided to uh kind of try to
take on Macy's also an executivedirector for the Republic
Chamber of Commerce, so he'svery good at he's very good at
getting in front of cameras andtaking pictures of himself and

(39:22):
all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (39:23):
Oh, because he's always pumped up.
You know, he's always bumped up.
Yeah, I don't he does he does anamazing job.

SPEAKER_01 (39:28):
I'm like the before picture, and Macy's the after.
But uh you know, he but uh youknow they're they're a great
family, and you know, Scott wasthe president for four years,
and then he kind of wanted tostep away from that, so I got
back in the saddle and probablypresident until I guess I don't
want to be anymore, or ifsomebody else wants to do it,
they can.
But no, they stepped in and youknow they've run the show now

(39:50):
for three years, and uh theylearn a little bit each year,
too.
But uh you know, no, they'rethey're doing a fantastic job
organizing the event.
And you know, we're not missinga beat.
I think it's June 9th throughthe 11th next year.
But you know, it's not easy, youknow, to keep this thing going.
And, you know, what I definitelythink we got one of the best

(40:12):
state associations in thecountry.
You know, Ohio.
Ohio also runs an excellent uhMidwest training expo, and their
show is set up a little bitdifferently.
I've been out there before toit, haven't been in 15 years or
so, but uh, you know, they'remore based on the training
aspect of it.
Um we try to we try toincorporate a little bit of

(40:33):
everything.
You know, we have a basstournament, we have a golf
tournament, we have a couple ofwe have a social event called
the Tiger Social.
We have a little event up in mysuite.
Uh I make some pretty awesomechocolate martinis.

SPEAKER_00 (40:47):
Yes, I can I can attest to that.
I can attest to that.
It was really good.
I enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_01 (40:51):
Yeah, and then you know we have a full-blown trade
show for five hours.
And last year, or I mean, sorry,this year we did, I think almost
right at a million dollars.
And then the following day, um,you know, we have a couple uh
vendors do some producttraining, and then you were nice
enough to come and do a paneldiscussion this year, and that

(41:12):
was very beneficial.
And we always try to have anindustry person come in because
just think that's always a lotmore beneficial to everybody to
have somebody that's you knowthat knows what it's like to do
a delivery, that's what it'slike to do a collection call,
then just some motivationalspeaker that you're gonna pay
five thousand dollars to andyou're gonna forget everything
they said an hour later.

SPEAKER_00 (41:33):
Yeah, I agree.
No, I totally understand.
Listen, I love being a part ofit.
It was great.
It was great being able to bethere, meet everybody.
Macy does an amazing job.
It was it was great to meet himand see everybody in action.
I've always wanted to see it andI heard about it, but uh I never
got a chance on an opportunityto go.
So going as a show was probablyone of my uh my my checkoffs.
I was able to say you know, mylist of things that I wanted to

(41:54):
get done so I can say it was agreat job.
And so here you are at all allthat, all these uh all these
retirements, everything ischanging.
It puts you in the forefront.
You've done a very good job ofnot only being forced being but
but taking it by the reins andkind of doing your own thing and
and really kind of shining yourown light on how you do it,
which is I gotta say, amazing.

(42:14):
You know, as we come to the end,uh how do you see your father's
legacy in this industry?
Because uh you have seen it fromboth sides.
You've you've you've seen itgrowing up, you've seen it
working with him, and now youget to see it after he's already
made his mark and he's and he'sgone.
How do you see your father'slegacy in everything that you do
and everything that you've donein this industry?

SPEAKER_01 (42:38):
Yeah, that's a great question.
You know, again, my father wasone of these kind of guys that
was extremely passionate.
He loved you know anything hewas gonna do, he was gonna put
100% into it with his heart, um,honesty, everything else.
You know, he definitely believedin what we do in this business
and serving customers andimproving their lives with our

(42:58):
products, services that we, youknow, give our customers and
everything.
And, you know, you want to get agroup of people together that,
you know, want to come together,you know, back in the 50s and so
forth, when there was some taxstuff came up in this industry,
and then you got some otherCongress people trying to pass
negative legislation and put usout of business or drastically

(43:20):
change how we do business.
Just get a group of verypassionate people together and
they'll show you how to get thatturned around.
And you know, my father was, youknow, one of the leaders in that
group.
And, you know, we he bled red,of course, but he bled the black
and gold from Missouri and hebled April.
I mean, he just we've alwaysbeen an April member.

(43:42):
And, you know, again, like Isaid, it's our second family.
And, you know, again, my dad'slegacy in this industry is the
state associations, thegrassroots, you know, just you
know, a lot of stuff happens inWashington, D.C.
and all that kind of stuff.
But you gotta make sure you gotbusiness taken care of at home
first.
And, you know, we've got, Ithink, 47 state laws, and um, so

(44:04):
for the most part, we've got apretty safe environment to do
business in this industry, butyou know, of course that can
always change with elections andthings.
Uh, but right now I feel prettyconfident in where we're at.
But you know, my dad, you know,he loved being in the stores, he
loved talking to our customers.
You know, I remember there was aprobably a time twenty-five plus

(44:29):
years ago or so, we were in astore in Mexico, Missouri.
There was a young man that wasin a wheelchair, and he had one
of those uh he had a keyboardand it kind of like a stick deal
on his head that he had to useto kind of talk through the
keyboard, and he was having aproblem with his television or
something, and you know, justwatching everything this young

(44:51):
man was going through andeverything, and I just looked at
my father and I said, Can wejust give this guy a television?
You know, I mean, and he's like,Absolutely, you bet we will.
And I know there's another storywith uh a lady had paid off her
account, and you know, my dadcame around the counter and just
told her how proud he was of herfor that and congratulated her

(45:12):
on paying off the account, andthe lady just kind of started to
break down in tears.
She's like, You know, Mr.
Cleek, you know, I've never hadanybody in my life tell me they
were proud of me.
Um wow.
So just that, you know, wayabout him, uh, just making
people feel good aboutthemselves.
You you know you knew everythingwith my dad was genuine, you

(45:34):
know, it was from the heart.
Um, you know, sometimes therewas obviously some tough
conversations, but I mean, youknow, my dad liked to cut up, he
liked to have fun.
Um this business.
He put everything, you know, hehad into it, and uh he loved,
you know, loved the rent-ownedbusiness.
Probably wishes he would havegot into it a little bit

(45:55):
earlier, back in the 70s, alittle bit more than the retail,
but such is life, you know, youlive and learn.
So but then, you know, the bestthing for me was the opportunity
that I got to work with myfather.
You know, I I guess I could havegone and done anything else that
I wanted to do as well, too, butI decided, you know, I worked
all through high school andthrough college.
You know, I knew that I wasgonna work with my dad.

(46:16):
So when I graduated from collegein '93, um, you know, became the
manager of the store, and thenuh, you know, we had started to
open up some more stores afterthat point in time and really
started to expand andeverything.
So um, you know, I got theblessing to work with my father
for 35 years.

(46:37):
Um, one great thing about youknow this industry, you know, is
and I guess you mentioned someother mentors and things, but I
mean, you know, we c we could uhpick up the phone and call about
anybody in this business, anduh, we got a lot of great
friends, and uh, you know,they're willing to share ideas,
you know, willing to help eachother out.

(46:58):
You know, we have seminars andtrade shows, and we all get in
the same room, and yes, some ofus might compete against each
other or whatever, but I mean,you know, we're we're still
trying to help each other outbecause we know at the end of
the day we're all here to serveour customers.
We're all here to make our teammembers better so they can
provide better service to ourcustomers.

(47:18):
And uh, you know, that's 100%what what my father believed in.
We love seeing customers ownwashers and dryers and
mattresses and other products.
You know, our company missionstatement that I came up with,
you know, a couple years ago,but you know, it's to you know
to make a positive impact in thecommunities we serve and to

(47:40):
improve the quality of life forour customers and team members.
And uh, you know, we've tried todo that uh every day, but you
know, we do some things withinour community, um, you know,
whether it's bowling for autismtournament or an ALS walk or
donating TVs to a local youthgroup, or you know, we've
provided uh turkey Thanksgivingdinners to six of our customers

(48:04):
at each store, so we help makeyou know 30 of our customers'
Thanksgiving meal a lot better.

unknown (48:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (48:11):
My wife, Heather, was very instrumental in helping
to orchestrate.
We adopted two families, Ibelieve, at each one of our
stores to provide Christmas forthose families.
Oh wow.
You know, just giving back tothe community, supporting those
that support us, um, are allthings that my father taught me.
And then I've, you know, I don'tdo a lot of things right, but

(48:32):
one thing I am pretty good at,I'll admit, is raising money for
organizations.
I always I always joke I canraise money for every
organization except my own.
You know, it uh you know, youneed, you know, like I'm kind of
the guy now at April events, youknow, when it's time to raise
money, they give me themicrophone.
So I'm not afraid to put myselfout there a little bit and

(48:53):
everything, but uh, you know,you just gotta you gotta have
some fun with it.
You know, we got a good group ofpeople in this industry.
A lot of people have made quitea bit of money, and everybody is
very generous, understands themission, understands the cause.
You know, one of the greatthings that APRO's done is the
uh scholarship fund, you know,to help support kids going to

(49:14):
college so they can chase theirdreams.
And uh you know, all three of mykids were recipients of APRO
scholarship, so we appreciatedthat.
And uh we support a you know ascholarship in my dad's name
every year, and then you knowthey got the disaster relief
fund.
You know, unfortunately there'sbeen a lot of hurricanes and

(49:35):
windstorms and other tragicevents that have affected our uh
team members and other or Aprilmembers and stuff.
So, you know, we're all family.
Uh you know, there's a lot ofgreat family businesses at
April, uh too many to mention,but I mean it just, you know,
again, I got the opportunity towork with my father.

(49:56):
You know, I've tell any of myfriends, uh, you know, they've
still got the opportunity towork with your dad to cherish
every day, cherish every moment.

SPEAKER_00 (50:05):
You know what I will say, John?
You know, I don't think theapple falls far from the tree.
I see a lot of your passion, Isee a lot of your leadership, I
see a lot of yourinterconnectivity to the
community, to the people thatyou serve all the time.
I see it in you all the time.
And you know, it's it's amazingwhen you when you get to say
some of those things.
And I it's great because I gotto see the the magazine that
finally came out with ChrisBolin on the front and the
pages.
You have those shining faces ofsome of the people that April

(50:27):
has been able to touch withthose scholarships.
So that was great to see.
But you know, my last question,I really want to ask this to you
because you know, I didn't getto ask this to you the first
time we had your firstinterview, and now we're talking
about dad.
But this one is really aboutyou.
Uh you don't fall far from thetree.
I see a lot of it what he had inhim and the way you represent
yourself, the way you representyour company and your family.

(50:48):
How is it to be able to do whatyou do and follow in your
father's footsteps and be asuccess in the community and and
be a pillar of the communitiesthat you serve?

SPEAKER_01 (50:57):
Yeah, well, uh again, fortunately, um, you
know, my mom and Cleek, who'sstill alive, and you know, my
father, they were tremendousparents to me and gave me a lot
of love.
I had a great upbringing andeverything, you know.
So I'm first give a lot ofcredit to them.
Uh you know, I've got awonderful wife, Heather.

(51:18):
We've worked together for thelast five years.
Uh Heather's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 (51:22):
I love Heather.
I think she's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 (51:25):
So she's obviously a very generous person as well,
too, and loving heart andeverything.
And then, you know, we have uh,you know, some long-tenured team
members have been with us 30plus years and everything.
So, you know, I just decided along time ago that you know, if
I'm gonna do something, I'mgonna do it the best that I can,
gonna jump in, you know, ahundred percent.

(51:46):
Uh some of this stuff that we'vegotten involved with has, you
know, in reality, kind of beenthrough a personal reason or
whatever.
So, like, for example, you know,we have three adult children and
then c a son-in-law and adaughter-in-law, but you know,
our son Johnny's 30, and thenour daughter Mary's 28, and then
our youngest son, Thomas, is 26,and he has mild autism.

(52:10):
So, and Heather has a uh has amaster's and early childhood
education and so forth.
So she really, really utilizedthat a lot when it came to
Thomas and so forth.
But uh, you know, so to saythat, you know, and you know, so
we got involved with the autismassociation here in the the
area, um, Easter Seals Midwest,what's called now.

(52:31):
But um and then, you know, I sawthe need, you know, they needed
to raise funds so they couldprovide better services.
So started a bowling for autismtournament 22 years ago.
Um they've since renamed it theCleek Family Bowling for Autism
Tournament, so that's kind of anice honor.
Amazing.

(52:51):
Um proud to say that you know,in the 22 years I've been doing
this, I've raised over$600,000for that organization.
Um and then of course, you know,we we got involved, you know,
our local church.
Um, you know, they you know, sowe do there the school the our
kids went to a local Catholichigh school and you know, it was

(53:12):
kind of one of those from theground-up deals.
And so we got involved with thatand helped raise some money in
different events there.
Um, you know, the food bank werevery instrumental, trying to
help out the food bank and andthen, you know, unfortunately,
kind of got involved with ALSand still, you know, raising
money for them today, of course,not near to the impact that you

(53:34):
know I used to back when my dadwas still alive, but we'd still
raise about ten thousand dollarsfor them a year, and we uh you
know probably raised, I don'tknow, around 150 or so thousand
since we got got involved.
And you know, I uh I just youknow I just find the time to
make it work.
I mean, uh some of the times itcomes as the sacrifice of my

(53:54):
business, um, which isn't alwaysgood, but you know, I'm a strong
believer in trying to make otherpeople's lives better, um, give
them back to the community.
And uh, you know, but I mean tobe honest with you, if I didn't
have a son that had autism,would I have gotten involved in
the autism association?
I don't know.
Um, you know, we've gottenreally involved with Special

(54:17):
Olympics.
There was a training for lifecampus that was built in
Jefferson City, Missouri about,I don't know, seven or eight
years ago.
It's a state-of-the-artfacility.
I was on the Cam Camp campaigncommittee to help raise money
for that.
And, you know, so did my partthere and so forth.
But nonetheless, you know, Ijust want to see other people do
well.
I want to see uh, you know, I Ilove getting out to the stores

(54:42):
too and visiting with customers.
Uh, you know, I love sellingthings.
I still make, you know, somecollection calls, sales calls.
I don't really do deliveriesanymore because physically I
just can't.
I got kind of a little bit of anissue with my heart, but uh so
physically can't really liftstuff like I used to.
But uh, you know, I just uh Iwant to do my best to represent

(55:05):
our company in a first classmanner that my dad would be
proud of and uh you know giveback to our community and make
other people's lives better.

SPEAKER_00 (55:14):
Well, I think you're doing a great job, John, and I'm
I'm glad that you're here onthis Legends podcast talking
about Tiger John Cleek.
John Cleek Jr., thank you somuch for coming on and just
having us today to be able totalk about this and all the
things that you've been through,how much he really meant to this
industry and everything.
Guys, I want to tell you Ireally appreciate you stopping
in and listening.
Listen, if you have anyquestions or you want to be on

(55:36):
the podcast and talk about someof the legends, hit me up, Pete
at the RTO ShowPodcast.com.
You can also go to the websitewww.thertoshowpodcast.com and go
on there, buy some swag.
It really helps out the show.
Make sure you subscribe.
You can see us on Facebook andInstagram and LinkedIn and
YouTube where you're gonna seethis.
I'm gonna tell you guys asalways, John, thank you so much
for being here.
Tell Heather I said hello.

(55:57):
Hopefully I'll get to see themthis year coming up.
I really hope I get a chance todo that again.
The traveling this year is gonnabe a little bit different, but
thank you so much for being onthe show.
And I'm gonna tell you guys asalways, get your collections low
to get your sales high.
Have a great one.

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